The Impact of Racial Identity and Consciousness Development on African American Female Academic Achievement: Implications for Counseling

The purpose of this study will be to examine the effect of racial identity/consciousness (RIC) on the academic achievement of African American female college freshmen. This causal-comparative study is intended to provide research based info ration concerning the impact of racial identity/consciousness development on the academic achievement of African American female freshman students. The sample consisted of 228 African American female college freshmen attending three HBCUs located in the southwestern region of the United States. One school was located in an urban area, and the remaining two schools were located in a rural area. Research on female identity has focused on White American women at the exclusion of African American women (Hoffman, 2006). The racial identity construct for this overlooked ethnic group is derived from the racial self-identification or definition and racial self-consciousness or acceptance. According to Hoffman (2006), racial self-consciousness affects a person's confidence as that individual evaluates and accepts who she is. Being knowledgeable of the connection between racial consciousness and the mental well being of a person can be a valuable tool when counselors administer the standard of care in an academic or therapeutic environment. The ideology of an individual is based in that person's belief system. Based on this system, African American females develop an ideological philosophy that has nationalist, assimilation, minority, and humanist proprieties (Rowley, Chavous, & Cook, 2003). The future of counseling lies in its ability to incorporate these racial (Rowley et al., 2003) and gender (Lapan, Tucker, Kim, & Kosciulek, 2003) factors during academic and therapeutic counseling. However, counselors must consider theses factors and the historical ancestry of African Americans when analyzing their psychological development. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]